The Assessment Process

Abstract

The clinical skill required to properly administer an intelligence test cannot be overemphasized. Clinical skill is especially needed when assessing children, since they are highly influenced by adult behavior. The psychologist who acquires the necessary knowledge to use intelligence tests but not the requisite clinical skill is ill prepared. This individual will find intelligence testing to be arduous, unrewarding, and perhaps punishing. The clinician who is skilled in interacting with children will be capable of making the often stilted test directions used by some intelligence tests seem like ordinary conversation to a child. She will make the intellectual evaluation a pleasant experience for the child rather than an onerous one.